The encapsulation of electronic components represents an art in and of itself. Electronic components are encapsulated to maintain electrical insulation, to provide mechanical protection and to otherwise shield the component from exposure to its environment. As the evolution of electronics continues its rapid advance it becomes increasingly important that the art and technology of encapsulation keep pace. An area of significant concern and interest relates specifically to the compositions used to encapsulate electronic components. There is an on-going effort to discover new and improved encapsulation materials. A relatively recent development has been the use of poly(arylene sulfide) compositions such as, for example, poly(phenylene sulfide) compositions, as encapsulating materials.
The reliability and useful life of an electronic component depends upon various factors. One important factor is the material used to encapsulate the electronic component. It is desired to employ encapsulation compositions which maximize the reliability and useful life of electronic components.
It is one object of this invention to improve the reliability and increase the life of electronic components encapsulated with poly(arylene sulfide) compositions. It is another object of this invention to provide improved encapsulation compositions and electronic components encapsulated therewith.
Pigmented poly(arylene sulfide) compositions are frequently processed (e.g. molded, extruded, etc.) at elevated temperatures. The presence of certain components in the composition may make the color of the composition temperature sensitive. For example, if identical compositions are processed at different temperatures the resultant materials may have different colors, i.e. a color shift may occur at the higher temperature.
It is a further object of this invention to provide poly(arylene sulfide) compositions susceptible to color shift with a color shift inhibitor. Poly(arylene sulfide) compositions so inhibited are useful as laser printable materials and encapsulation materials and for any other application where a pigmented poly(arylene sulfide) is desired.
Other objects, advantages and aspects of this invention will become apparent to persons skilled in the art upon study of this disclosure and the appended claims.